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Investigative Filmmakers Barred From China

Filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill were barred from
visiting the Bejing Independent Film Festival this week.The Chinese government denied the pair
visas to travel to the festival, where they hoped to speak with audiences of
their HBO documentary, “China's Unnatural Disaster:
The Tears of Sichuan Province.”Their film follows the struggles of parents whose children were killed
during the earthquake in the central Chinese province last May.These children were among thousands who
perished when approximately 7,000 substandard classrooms collapsed during the
quake.

The scandal that erupted over
the deaths of the children has sparked a controversy that continues to
rage. The term "tofu-dregs
schoolhouses" has now become a derisive Chinese name for the shoddy and
corruption-ridden construction process behind the structures that suffered mass
casualties of schoolchildren during the disaster. See today’s NY Times article
and the film’s site
for more information.